[Ritual Magic] Rank 2 Level 2 -> Level 3

Summoning the final imp seemed to push the ability over the line, although its level had barely moved since Sarah received it. Then again, she wasn’t exactly doing much with her rituals, just summoning the same demons over and over. It sucks that I lose track of them once they go out of vision, she thought. Sarah had ambitions of sending her minions off into the dungeon to farm experience for her, but the system had put a stop to her plans. There seemed to be a limit to how far away the summons could go from her, stretched even further when she was directly looking or paying attention to a specific one. When trying to send them out beyond where she could sense or in different directions she faced problems trying to command them, at around 50 meters.

Still, aren’t these summons kind of ridiculous? Three minions at level 31 and above while I am only level 25?

“They are,” Lucifer responded, ”but also understand their levels are only given by their stats, and level is just one indicator of combat potential. Unless you perform a more elaborate ritual, it is unlikely any of your summons will have more advanced skills and very unlikely they have any understanding of different laws. A level 25 warrior with a tier 3 combat skill would tear through your imps.”

The explanation made some sense. Advancing her own [Ritual Magic] skill to tier 3 would give her rare summons, imparting the equivalent of around 30 bonus stat points to each summon, or 90 points spread across three summons. Not to mention rank 2 in ritual magic meant ‘rituals cost significantly less mana’, although she had no idea what that entailed as she has never actually done a ritual without the bonus, therefore rank three will likely give another bonus in addition to the extra stats on each summon. Assuming most skills are created equal, there had to be some massive advantages that made up for this for other skills.

She recalled her earlier conversation with Lucifer about how generally the leaders or elites of most invading forces would arrive at Level 24 with a skill at Rank 2 Level 9, advancing immediately on arrival. Sarah felt it unlikely she could fight one of these elites of a similar level just yet, but there was a clear solution to this.

Gain more levels.

She had three summons all of a similar strength to the golem of before that would sweep through the minions of this floor with ease. Currently, she was taking a leisurely stroll around with one of the imps hovering by her side while the other two were circling at her maximum range and killing any salamanders or vine serpents that came close. While they were doing the farming for her, Sarah was playing around with her demonic mana and also trying to push the limits of her [Soul Sense].

She was aware that her weakness as a summoner was her own vulnerability, and so her thoughts were to use the ability as a way to scout her surroundings and stop any possibly ambushes. It also had the added benefit of helping her control her summons, as by pushing the range of [Soul Sense] she could also push the distance she could send her minions from her. It wasn’t perfect, as she was only able to push the sense in a single direction so far meaning her current method of training was to circle her sense in a constant loop around her to make sure every direction was covered from attacks.

[Soul Sense] Rank 1 Level 7 -> Rank 1 Level 8

And it seemed to be paying some dividends. Otherwise, the current exercise Sarah was attempting was to create a barrier of mana around her. Lucifer was of the opinion that a defensive skill would help round out her arsenal, and now had her trying to solidify her mana around her like a second skin.

The process wasn’t easy, especially as distracted as she was with coordinating multiple summons to kill the salamanders that rushed at her, but she found her [Eidetic Memory] had other benefits with helping her organise her mind and coordinate multiple actions together simultaneously.

Ability Unlocked: [Mana Barrier] Rank 1 Level 1

* Create a barrier of mana around you to protect you from attacks.

* Damage absorbed scales with intelligence.

You have no more ability slots remaining. Existing abilities can replace new ones at the cost of all experience gained.

And accompanying the new skill;

[Demonic Mana Manipulation] Rank 1 Level 9 -> Rank 2 Level 1

You have been granted three upgrade options based on your actions thus far. Choose wisely;

Rank 2 effect: Hellfire

* Your demonic mana has enhanced explosive effects.

* +100% explosive power.

Rank 2 effect: Demonic Pact

* Your demonic mana can be used to empower demonic familiars.

* Up to 50% of your mana pool can be sacrificed to briefly empower an ally’s stats by 50%. Empowerment time (seconds) equal to the total level of [Demonic Mana Manipulation] (Rank 2 Level 1 =11 seconds).

Rank 2 effect: Infernal efficiency

* Gain increased efficiency when using demonic based abilities.

* Abilities using demonic mana cost 25% less.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Sarah recalled she did not get the option to select an upgrade effect when her [Ritual Magic] broke through a rank, but then again she also had no ‘actions thus far’ that were even ritual-adjacent her whole life for the system to offer her any options. She called up the ability to take a look, this time bringing up the effect;

[Ritual Magic] Rank 2 Level 2 -> Level 3

* Rank 2 Effect: Rituals require significantly less mana to create (cost reduced by 50%).

So its current effect reduced the initial cost of rituals by half. Would infernal efficiency reduce that again to a total of 25%, or be multiplicative to 62.5%? After asking Lucifer, the demon mention that most of these buffs would be multiplicative, otherwise you would be reaching negative costs with some abilities. Then again, this would not only affect the initial cost like [Ritual Magic] did, but also possibly affect the cost to maintain the connection to the summon. That would open up around another 30 points of mana for her, which meant another summon to play with.

And then Hellfire would buff not only the damage of her demonic bolts but also when she detonated her summons. Having portable missiles was definitely useful, although this had to be balanced with the fact that after exploding her summons she was left very vulnerable. This effect seemed higher risk, but potentially higher reward if it meant she could take down those much higher level than her.

Demonic pact gave a less risky option to take down those higher level than her. If she were to have half her mana pool available and use it all to buff a uncommon summon at level 32 like she currently had, it would receive around 100 bonus stats. But on the other hand, 11 seconds is quite a short time, and she didn’t have that much mana available as with 3 minions up right now she was left with around 23% of her pool. Not to mention that even if she dismissed a minion to reach 50% available, she might be better off just summoning more minions with that available mana, as half her pool currently is around 61 points and therefore enough to summon nearly two extra minions.

There were benefits to all these options, but in the end she had to choose one.

Your ability [Demonic Mana Manipulation] has gained the rank 2 effect: Infernal efficiency

* Gain increased efficiency when using demonic based abilities.

* Abilities using demonic mana cost 25% less.

Sarah thought that she was already strong enough to fight those at and above her level with the extra stats from her epic class and her perks. She had to remember her main priority was to stay alive, and more summons would help her do that. If someone was quick enough to bypass her minions, and strong enough to break her [Mana Barrier] and kill her, then she doubted she would have enough time to empower or explode a minion anyway so those choices would hardly help. Her level up speed was already quick enough that empowering or exploding the minions also wouldn’t change things, or if anything they would slow things down as she would have to wait for her mana to recharge.

But who doesn’t like more minions.

Something in her body seemed to subtly change and all of a sudden she felt slightly lighter. The connections she had to her three imps had compressed somewhat and the previous level 31, 32, and 32 summons went from a cost of 95 to 72, leaving her with 52 points or 42% of her mana remaining.

And so with some drawing she made another ritual circle. She used the blood of one of the random lizards her imps had put down as she didn’t feel the need to contribute her own, and after pumping in all her remaining mana she had another companion with her.

Hellhound – Level 30 (Uncommon)

And this one was different.

It looked like a typical black wolf you would find on Earth, only larger and with a much leaner form. Its coat was charcoal black and its eyes glowed a fiery red, and she could also see it exhale embers as it breathed with its mouth matching this fiery red glow. It was not massive, rather it had a sleek but muscled build with its body coming up to her hips. It could probably reach her height if it were to stand on its hind legs, but no doubt it would also weigh a fair bit more as well.

The wolf was staring directly at her as it panted, with a hungry look that would have made her worry if she did not have a connection to it that put it firmly under her control. It was nice finally to see some variation in her summons, and now her party was made up of three imps, a hellhound, and herself.

Speaking of her party, they seemed to have run into another of the boss level Greater Earth Salamanders like the last one she had taken down. This floor was multiple times larger than before, and it looked like it would also contain multiple bosses too. This one however was also standing beside a tunnel that ran into the ground, the path to the next level of the dungeon.

Sarah sent in her hellhound to test it out alongside two of the imps, keeping one close to protect her. The three summons first took apart the two normal Earth Salamanders that were in a pack with the boss, before turning to the main event.

The hound moved quick. It was easily able to dart in and both bite and claw at the limbs of the boss, while also avoiding its swipes. It continually circled the monster, and with its speed the salamander grew frustrated that it couldn’t keep up with it. When it lifted its head, Sarah pulled the hound back and it easily dodged the spray of earth that would have locked it in place, before shooting back in to nip and the monster.

But for how easily it dodged around the boss, it could hardly deal any damage. A swipe of the monsters tail barely missed the hound, but with its defences it looked like it would easily outlast her summon until eventually the hellhound made a mistake.

But this wasn’t her only summon, and so now that she had a good idea at what her hellhound could do she sent in the other two imps to support. Unfortunately, even the three minions together were not able to take it down either. They all were mobile enough to dodge around it, and gave their best shots at attacking its limbs and the cracks in its stone armour, but they were all also squishy enough that it meant they had to escape quickly and that led to their attacks being softer as they couldn’t put their whole body behind it.

She scanned around with her soul sense and, sensing nothing nearby, sent the third imp to support. It took less than a minute for all four summons that were all multiple levels higher than the boss to take it down, the imps attacking from above and wedging their spears into the cracks in its stone armour and pinning it to the ground. The numbers meant they could attack from all sides and the salamander had no way to fight back.

You have levelled up.

Her summons may have out levelled the boss but the fight would have been close if she did not have all four of them to gang up on it. The wolf was easily countered by the defensive monster, but while it was a bad matchup now that wouldn’t always be the case. All the summons together made for a very mobile team that could use ‘guerilla’ tactics to wear down the boss, although it would be better if she had at least one tank-type minion like her infernal to also support her.

But who am I to complain, she remarked, as she thought about how she was able to sit behind a tree casually while her summons could take down a boss to level her up. Walking up to its corpse, she saw it had dropped something else for her, a shiny new pair of gauntlets made of stone. Time for an upgrade.